A credit bureau gathers information about how consumers use credit. In other words, they collect information from as many consumer financial transactions or inquiries as they can. They then sell access to that combined information to anyone who has a legally-recognized reason (permissible purpose).

Dispute Information

If you're looking to dispute something with the credit bureaus, our dispute guidelines [1] should help speed your way to success. If you need any additional help, you can send us an email [2] or ask a question on our Facebook page [3].

Credit Bureau Contact Numbers

Here is the main address and telephone number for each of the three major credit bureaus.

NOTE: It's very difficult to speak with a human being using this info. The best way to speak with a real human is to first get your credit report. You can either use the Annual Credit Report service [4] or order your credit reports and scores using one of the 30 day free trial offers [5].

How to Speak to a Human

You can also try to blast through the phone system by using these strategies from GetHuman.com [6]:

How Credit Bureaus Use Your Data:

In case you didn't know it, one permissible purpose is to sell your information to companies looking to send out credit or other offers. It works like this:

1. A major credit card company - let's say American Express - wants to promote a new credit card.
2. They contact the credit bureaus and deliver a profile of the kind of person they think will be interested in the new card. The profile might include things like personal income, region or state the person lives in, number of credit cards, credit score, etc.
3. The credit bureau then searches through their records looking for anyone that matches that profile. If you fit the profile, an offer is mailed to you or someone calls you on the phone at dinner time. It's one of the ways the credit bureaus make money.

You can opt out of this "service" by contacting the credit bureaus. More info on our junkmail opt out page [7].